Real people: John the Baptist (‘Testing Luke’ #28)

According to the Jewish historian Josephus, Herod Antipas put John the Baptist in prison in the fortress of Machaerus, and later had him killed. John was a prophet who lived at about the same time as Jesus. He called on people to turn back to God, and to show this by being baptised.

All the accounts of Jesus's life in the Bible begin with John the Baptist: they say that he announced the coming of Jesus, and they say that he himself was foretold by the prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament.

Luke's account mentions that John publicly criticized Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, for marrying Herodias, his brother’s wife. So Herod put John in prison.

Eventually, both Josephus and the Bible record that Antipas had John executed. Once again, we see that Luke wrote about real people, like John the Baptist.